Quantifying Theory: Pierre Bourdieu

Quantifying Theory: Pierre Bourdieu

Book Quantifying Theory: Pierre Bourdieu
Éditeur Springer Netherlands
Copyright 2009
ISBN 978-1-4020-9449-1 (Print) 978-1-4020-9450-7 (Online)

Chris Sanders and Karen Robson
This volume is the result of a conversation between the two editors about the importance of linking theory and methods. It may seem obvious to all social scientists that this is of upmost importance and indeed the foundation of the discipline of sociology (as sociologists, we can only speak of our discipline with any degree of certainty). In undergraduate and postgraduate teaching, however, the discourses of theory and methods are often rather disparate, with little direct communication between the two. There are ‘theorists’ and there are ‘methodologists’. One group often claims that the other does a job that they cannot do, which is actually rather preposterous, as anyone schooled in the discipline up to the level of a Ph.D. should be able to muster up a few facts about research design as well as the key features of the theories of Marx, Weber and Durkheim — at the very least.
After investigating the availability of ‘recent’ books and articles specifically addressing the linkage between theory and methods, we were surprised by the paucity of materials in the area. Indeed, any good peer-reviewed journal publication can, and often does, demonstrate the operationalization of a theory, but the readership of these articles is assumed to be rather specialized. It leaves the less seasoned without much detail on the actual steps involved in the process and the possibility that there might be more than one way of measuring a concept, and hence any serious discussion around such topics.

able of contents

1. Introduction: Approaches to Quantifying Bourdieu
Chris Sanders, Karen Robson

2. How Bourdieu “Quantified” Bourdieu: The Geometric Modelling of Data
Frédéric Lebaron

3. Quantifying the Field of Power in Norway
Johs Hjellbrekke, Olav Korsnes

4. The Homology Thesis: Distinction Revisited
Philippe Coulangeon, Yannick Lemel

5. Transmutations of Capitals in Canada: A ‘Social Space’ Approach
Gerry Veenstra

6. The Cumulative Impact of Capital on Dispositions Across Time: A 15 Year Perspective of Young Canadians
Lesley Andres

7. The Influence of Cultural Capital on Educational and Early Labour Market Outcomes of Young People in Australia
Gary N. Marks

8. Teenage Time Use as Investment in Cultural Capital
Karen Robson

9. Cultural Capital and Access to Highly Selective Education: The Case of Admission to Oxford
Anna Zimdars, Alice Sullivan, Anthony F. Heath

10. Applying Bourdieu's Concepts of Social and Cultural Capital in Educational Research in Greece and Cyprus
Marios Vryonides

11. Occupational Structures: The Stratification Space of Social Interaction
Wendy Bottero, Paul S. Lambert, Kenneth Prandy, Stephen McTaggart

12. Women's Work and Cultural Reproduction: An Analysis of Non-Wage Labour in Central Ontario, 1861
Heather L. Garrett

13. Quantifying Social Class: A Latent Clustering Approach
Nathan D. Martin

14. Changing Determinants of Consumption in Hungary, 1982–1998
Péter Róbert

15. Fanship Habitus: The Consumption of Sport in the US
Donald P. Levy

16. Quantifying Habitus: Future Directions
William C. Cockerham, Brian P. Hinote